The Ignorantines were a religious congregation of the Roman Catholic Church devoted to the gratuitous education of children. The movement was founded about 1683 by the Abbe de La Salle. The statutes of the order, approved by Benedict XIII. in 1725, imposed on its members vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience. In 1789 the order counted 1000 members, and possessed 121 houses. They were forced to quit France, but were recalled by Bonaparte in 1806. They were later to be met with in various countries. In France the law of 1882 banished them from the public schools. Research Ignorantines
Sieur de La Salle (Robert Cavelier) was a French explorer. He was born in 1643 at Rouen and died in 1687. In 1669 he emigrated to Canada, and began the series of his remarkable journeys in the West. He visited Lake Michigan and the Illinois River, but whether he at this early stage saw the Mississippi is a disputed problem. In 1673 he received a grant of the station at Port Frontenac (now Kingston). He was again in France in 1677, but the next year was back in Canada and had reached Niagara. He ascended the chain of lakes to Mackinaw, thence up Lake Michigan and down the Illinois River to Peoria. Disappointments followed; but he was able to renew the canoe voyage, descend the Illinois and Mississippi to its mouth, which he reached in April, 1682, and to claim the entire region for Louis XIV. Returning to France, he organized an expedition which, in 1684, sailed directly for the mouth of the great river. But the explorers landed by mistake at Matagorda Bay, and after harassing wanderings Sieur de La Salle was murdered by his followers within the limits of Texas. Research Sieur de La Salle
Charles Albert Fechter was a French actor and dramatist. He was born in 1824 at Paris and died in 1879. His first appearance on the stage was at the SalleMoliere, after which he made a short tour of Italy with a travelling French company. Returning to Paris, he appeared between 1844 and 1856 at different Parisian theatres, and in 1857 he was joint-director of the Odeon. In 1860 he came to London, and at once achieved great success as Ruy Bias and Hamlet at the Princess' Theatre, characters in which he departed widely from stage traditions. He subsequently leased the Lyceum, and afterwards the Adelphi, acting youthful and melodramatic parts with striking power. From 1870 to 1878 he lived in the United States, but his experiences as a manager in New York were not successful. He was regarded in Paris as the finest living exponent of romantic drama. Research Charles Fechter
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